U.S. 'Disappointed' by Palestinian Unity Deal

The United States said on Wednesday it was disappointed by a unity pact agreed between the Gaza-based Islamist group Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and said it could seriously complicate peace efforts.

“The timing was troubling and we were certainly disappointed in the announcement,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a regular news briefing.

“This could seriously complicate our efforts. Not just our efforts but the efforts of the parties to extend their negotiations.”

Psaki said U.S. officials had expressed their concerns to the Palestinians.

“It’s hard to see how Israel can be expected to negotiate with a government that does not believe in its right to exist,” she said.

The Palestinian move, coming after a long line of failed efforts to reconcile after seven years of internal bickering, envisions a unity government within five weeks and national elections six months later.

Israel said after the announcement that Abbas had chosen Hamas over peace, and canceled a session of U.S.-brokered talks with the Palestinians that had been scheduled for Wednesday night in Jerusalem.

Israeli Channel 2 TV said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would convene an emergency session of his security cabinet on Thursday to discuss his response.

Along with the United States and the European Union, Israel views Hamas as a terrorist organization, and says Abbas’ efforts to unify with the group show he is not serious about extending the troubled negotiations.

The talks, aimed at ending its decades-old conflict with the Palestinians and establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, are scheduled to end on April 29.